JEW'S ROLE AT A NAZI CAMP IS INVESTIGATED

By DAVID E. PITT

Published: May 1, 1987

The Justice Department is ''seriously contemplating'' denaturalization proceedings against a 75-year-old Jewish man from Brooklyn in connection with allegations that he brutalized Jewish prisoners in a Nazi camp, people familiar with the investigation said yesterday.

The object of the inquiry, a retired dairy worker named Jacob Tannenbaum, has been identified as a ''kapo,'' or inmate orderly, at the Gorlitz prison camp on the Neisse River, near the Czechoslovak border in southeastern Germany.

Mr. Tannenbaum, who lives in Brighton Beach, came to the United States from Poland in 1949 and became an American citizen six years later. A denaturalization suit would be aimed at stripping him of his citizenship.

Mr. Tannenbaum has denied the allegations in interviews with The New York Post and Newsday, calling them lies. Efforts to reach him by telephone yesterday were unsuccessful. An operator said last night that the telephone receiver was ''off the hook.'' Step Toward Deportation

Over the years, there have been numerous investigations into former Jewish concentration camp orderlies living in the United States. But this is the first time, the people familiar with the case said, that the Federal Government had carried an investigation against a kapo to this point.

In Mr. Tannenbaum's case, a denaturalization suit - normally a lengthy proceeding - would be a first step toward eventual deportation.

Information regarding Mr. Tannenbaum's World War II conduct is said to have come from both the United States and Israel.

An Israeli Government spokesman said he was unaware of any Israeli involvement in the investigation. ''To the best of my knowledge, nothing came to Israel, nothing came from Israel,'' the official, Baruch Binah, said. ''I have talked with our police authorities, and they know nothing about it.''

Andrew J. Maloney, the United States Attorney in Brooklyn, said the case was being supervised by the Office of Special Investigations, a Washington-based arm of the Justice Department that recently won the deportation of Karl Linnas, a 67-year-old Long Island man. Mr. Linnas, who was returned to the Soviet Union April 21, had been sentenced to death in absentia by the Russians for war crimes.

Mr. Maloney, asked about reports that the Office of Special Investigations was close to beginning proceedings against Mr. Tannenbaum, said, ''We are aware of their interest, but I can't say anything more.'' Some Convicted in 50's

The exact nature of the allegations against Mr. Tannenbaum was unclear, and Federal officials in Washington declined comment on the case. But an official in New York who said he had seen some of the evidence said it suggested that Mr. Tannenbaum had been ''an active and cruel member of the camp hierarchy.''

In the 1950's, several former kapos were convicted in Israel of concentration camp brutalities. But Israeli officials in New York said there had been no cases since then.

''We've had complaints about kapos in the past many, many times,'' said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Yeshiva University in Los Angeles, which houses the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

''Such crimes cannot be condoned,'' he said. But Rabbi Hier added that he was concerned about ''loose statements'' by the Justice Department that seemed to equate kapos with their Nazi captors.

''There are no Jewish John Demjanjuks,'' the rabbi said, referring to the 67-year-old retired auto worker from Cleveland who is on trial in Israel for war crimes.

''If it can be proven that a kapo committed crimes, there should be prosecution,'' the rabbi said. ''But we are greatly opposed to statements likening the behavior of victims to that of their persecutors. That's insanity. It also gives some people a chance to say, ''See, there were Jewish Nazis also.' ''

Under the Germans, kapos were appointed by the SS, which supervised the camps. The kapos enjoyed special privileges, such as better food, clothing and housing, and in return they supervised other inmates, usually in work gangs, but also in camp kitchens and hospitals.

Under American law, Mr. Tannenbaum could be subject to denaturalization and deportation if the Government proves through clear and convincing evidence that he lied about his background and that he participated in acts of persecution.

Allan A. Ryan Jr., who headed the Office of Special Investigations from 1980 to 1983, said the Government was under a heavy burden of proof in such cases.

''What complicates these inquiries,'' Mr. Ryan said, ''is that there were kapos who appeared to take part in persecution of inmates, such as kicking, beating - but who were doing it to prevent greater persecution by the guards.''